Time-Series Sampling of Vent Fluids

'Osmo' samplers draw hydrothermal fluids into small capillary-like tubing and allow long-term sampling of diffuse and black smoker hydrothermal fluids, as well as fluids from methane seeps. Osmo samplers in this image (white canisters) are attached in an in situ 'microbial' incubator deployed inside the walls of a black smoker chimney called Gremlin. The osmo samplers allowed collection of vent fluids for 1-year, while the microbial incubator collected hundreds of temperature measurements inside the wall of the black smoker. Novel microbes colonized mineral wafers and new sulfide precipitates inside 4 discrete chambers within the incubator. This experiment, lead by D. Kelley, University of Washington, was designed to look at the upper temperature limit of life.

Osmo samplers will be deloyed at the ASHES hydrothermal field and at the summit of Southern Hydrate Ridge during the VISIONS'13 expedition.